NEWS
Stay updated on the latest developments in plant science policy and EPSO activities!
EPSO has published a new briefing for plant scientists: on the Life Programme Call 2023.
In addition, we updated our Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-24 Briefing to take into account the latest information on the UK and New Zealand’s association to the programme, the publication of the European Research Council Work Programme 2024 and New partnership candidate: ‘Forests & Forestry for a Sustainable Future’.
EPSO encourages its members to apply to these programmes. The briefings contain all information for plant scientists in one place. They also provide additional researched information, useful tips and available final call texts published by the European Commission for 2023/24.
*Access to the Members’ only Website is restricted to EPSO active Members (not sleeping members or external Personal Members) – please contact Sofia Ciravegna for access.
Wishing you success with your proposals
Karin Metzlaff, John Fitzgibbon and Odd Arne Rognli
Contact: Karin Metzlaff
The 25th Europe-wide seminar of the series by the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) and aimed at the Plant Science community and its stakeholders.
TTT: The seminar will be held online each third Thursday of the month at three (CET).
On 21st September 2023 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “Epigenetic regulation in plants”
Maria-Estefania Lopez Ortiz, University of Geneva, Switzerland: “Heritability of stress memory in woodland strawberry”
Dario Galanti, University of Tübingen, Germany (now Kew Gardens, UK): “Genome-epigenome dynamics in natural populations of Thlaspi arvense”
Iva Mozgová, Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), Czech Republic: “To green or not to green: how PRC2 repression contributes to seedling establishment”
The seminars will be hosted on Zoom and last approximately 1.5 hours. Numbers will be limited to 300 attendees and therefore please register early if you would like to join. There will be ample opportunities to ask questions and join the debate. So please join us to support this new and exciting initiative for European Plant Science by following this link just prior to the start of the seminar.
EPSO members register in advance for this meeting via this link
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
In the coming months we will be on the lookout for talented plant scientists among the EPSO membership to present their findings and perspectives to the EPSO seminar series. If we approach you to talk, we hope you will be happy to support the initiative. This is a fantastic opportunity for both eminent world leaders and talented up-and-coming early career researchers to present their research to an international audience and to network with potential collaborators. If you wish to suggest a theme for one of the autumn seminars and / or nominate yourself or one of your colleagues to give a seminar, we most welcome your suggestions. Please contact Tim George ([email protected]) to provide your name and potential talk title.
We look forward to seeing you all for the 25th EPSO seminar on the 21st September 2023
Tim George, Alan Schulman and Marie-Theres Hauser
EPSO Plant Science Seminar Series Organising Committee
Click here to read: Full EPSO news item
Contacts:
Tim George, Hutton / UK & EPSO Board
Alan Schulman, LUKE / FI & Adviser to EPSO Board
Marie-Theres Hauser BOKU / AT & EPSO Board
National funders in the European Research Area Network on Sustainable Crop Production (SusCrop ERA-net) together with experts from science and stakeholders developed (supported by 2 workshops) the white paper on ‘Future Research Needs in Sustainable Agriculture’.
The four main research needs are:
- Topic 1: Knowledge generation in relation to nutritional value and health benefits of protein / niche crops;
- Topic 2: Knowledge generation and transfer on multi-stress resistance for stable yield;
- Topic 3: Innovation pipeline: Protein / niche crops for food and feed value chains: How to build a value chain for uncultivated protein / niche crops;
- Topic 4: Impact assessment and trade-offs.
The white paper is available both on the SusCrop website and to download here.
Please disseminate this widely for consideration at European as well as national levels.
Contacts:
Heather McKhann, INRAE & SusCrop ERA-Net (prepared synthesis as white paper)
Christian Breuer, PTJ & SusCrop ERA-Net co-ordinator
Karin Metzlaff, EPSO & official observer SusCrop ERA-Net
Weave is a bottom-up, cross-European initiative developed by European research funders organised in Science Europe to support excellent collaborative research projects across borders.
Weave currently comprises national and regional research funders from 11 European countries: AT, BE, CZ, DE, LUX, HR, NO, PL, SV, SE and CH.
As chair of the ISE (Initiative for Science in Europe) Horizon Europe Working Group, Karin Metzlaff is organising with national funders the ISE webinar on WEAVE on 22 September 2023 from 2-3:30 P.M. CET.
Please disseminate to interested colleagues at your university / institute, who are welcome to join the webinar.
To help us prepare the seminar, please confirm your participation by email to [email protected] and cc [email protected], best by 11 September 2023 and send your name, to which ISE member organisation you belong (for EPSO members: EPSO) and your email address.
We will send the link to those who confirmed participation on 14th September.
Looking forward to discussing with you in the webinar!
Monica Dietl, ISE Coordinator
Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director & ISE chair Horizon Europe WG
Click here to read:
WEAVE webinar announcement, 29.8.2023
WEAVE Briefing for Plant Scientists, 22.8.2023
Contacts:
Kari Metzlaff, EPSO, Executive Director & ISE chair Horizon Europe WG
Monica Dietl, ISE Coordinator
The EPSO Working Group on Plants and Microbiomes has the pleasure to announce that its fifth workshop will take place in Vienna on 11-12 December 2023.
The workshop has three main themes:
- WG progress and reports on major (national & EU) projects and initiatives
- Development of best practices and recommendations
- Topic 1 – Culture collections
- Topic 2 – Minimum experimental standards for microbiome analysis
- Topic 3 – Simplified systems to measure plant microbiome functions
- Joint discussion on recommendations for European programmes.
To develop the programme further, we kindly ask you to contribute by submitting a mini–abstract and indicate to which programme theme / topic this refers, to [email protected] until 15 October.
We look forward to meeting you in December,
Angela Sessitsch, Paul Schulze-Lefert, Corné Pieterse and Karin Metzlaff
Click here to read: The workshop Draft Programme 20.7.2023
Contacts:
Angela Sessitsch, Paul Schulze-Lefert, Corné Pieterse and Karin Metzlaff
Plants comprise the key component for direct or indirect human nutrition. Agriculture must be highly productive and sustainable in order to meet the increasing demand for food, feed, fuel and fibre to support a rapidly growing global human population, as well as reach higher quality providing health benefits.
As a result of the large areas devoted to agriculture and the high demand of resources, the technologies used in the production and protection of plants are most relevant for the global environment.
Pathogens and pests compete with humans for plant-based food. Plant protection to pests in agriculture, horticulture and forestry is the main area of focus for EPSO’s Plant Health Working Group (WG).
In this context, the Plant Health WG proposes to join efforts on three major challenges:
- To develop novel and sustainable pest control methods
- To detect pests that affect plant health and reduce crop yields
- To develop and validate pest and crop management technologies and disseminate them to end users
The Plant Health WG aims to provide tools and raise societal awareness on how plant health protection could contribute to food and nutritional security, sustain farmers’ income, protect biodiversity and reduce impacts on the environment, ensuring high-quality products and boosting economic development. This requires a joint effort and engagement of academia with industry, farmers, citizens, non-governmental organisations and policy makers.
The next meeting of the Plant Health WG will build on this statement and will be announced by the WG Chairs.
Looking forward to further collaborating with you in the Plant Health WG,
Beat, Tina, Maria, Gian Paolo, Andreas and Karin
Plant Health WG co-chairs: Beat Keller, Tina Romeis, Maria Pozo, Gian Paolo Accotto and Andreas Voloudakis.
EPSO Executive Director: Karin Metzlaff
Click here to read: Full ‘EPSO Plant Health statement’
Contacts:
EPSO Plant Health WG Chairs:
Beat Keller, Uni ZUR, CH
Tina Romeis, IPB, DE
Maria Pozo, CSIC, ES
Gian Paolo Accotto, CNR / IT
Andreas Voloudakis, AUA, GR
EPSO: Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director